Made in Chelsea, stolen in Clapham: Reality star related to King Charles has bike pinched despite using three locks worth £200; Pogačar and Žigart booed by tennis fans… for being late; No Paris-Roubaix chicane at Arenberg Forest + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
John Degenkolb to miss Paris-Roubaix after fracturing collarbone, elbow, and wrist, in Tour of Flanders crash
Team Picnic PostNL’s John Degenkolb will be forced to miss this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix after the team confirmed that he’s suffered a fractured collarbone, elbow, and wrist after being caught in the big crash at the Tour of Flanders.
The Dutch team’s two other riders, Tim Naberman and Alex Edmondson, also sustained injuries as a result of the crash, a broken wrist for Naberman and a sprained ankle for Edmondson.
Team doctor Camiel Aldershof said in a press release: “John hit the ground with quite a lot of force in the crash, and the in-race medical team immediately suspected a fractured collarbone. He was transferred to the local race hospital where further checks and x-rays were conducted. Those then unfortunately confirmed that John indeed fractured his collarbone, alongside his wrist and elbow on the same side.
“He will undergo surgery on his wrist, before a period of recovery. Timelines can often change, but we expect him to be out of competition for two months.”
36-year-old Degenkolb, who won the 2015 edition of Paris-Roubaix, would only be missing the race for the second time in his career, having previously not raced the Hell of the North in 2016.
The German rider finished 11th last year, and the year before, was part of incredible drama on Carrefour de l’Arbre where he made contact with eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel, crashing out of contention.
“I yearn to have this much trust in myself”: Red Bull’s latest “blindfolded” stunt divides fans
Red Bull apparently gives you wings — and now it apparently it also gives you the ability to ride down a flight of stairs with a possibly deadly drop on the other side with a blindfold on too.
I’m obviously joking (please, no one drink a can of Red Bull and try this), but the energy drink-making company’s silly stunts and antics are really going to another level — and fans are as divided as I am.
On one hand, I’m questioning “But why?”, on the other, “Why not?”
“Arms made of strings”: UAE Team Emirates riders test their hoop skills and fail miserably, as fans suggest “stick to cycling”
The theme for today’s blog seems to a crossover of ball sports with cycling… and it’s not looking very good for team cycling.
First, Pogačar and Žigart arrived late to tennis; now some social media/PR intern seems to have had the idea of making riders try putting a ball in a hoop, and I’m not going to lie, it’s one hell of a tough watch.
With yesterday’s time trial stage of the Itzulia Basque Country starting at the Fernando Buesa basketball stadium in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava (don’t ask me why), UAE Team Emirates posted a video of their riders making use of the court.
And if you ever doubted why cross-training and hitting the gym on the odd days is important for you as a cyclist, this video makes a strong case for it, as the cyclists struggle to even get the balls anywhere close to the hoop from the three-point line, flopping some feet away embarrassingly.
“Yeah, this was harder to watch than I thought,” wrote Kevin, while Willy wrote: “More bricks than Paris-Roubaix.”
One person said: “Leg FTP 450… arm FTP 50”. Yet another person perhaps summed up your live blogger’s feelings: “Like needles to my eyes.”
But as someone pointed out: “I’d love to see the NBA players climb the Alps or race any bike race for that matter. Who cares, they’re bike riders!” And now, I’m stuck with the idea of LeBron (who has a stake in Canyon Bicycles) getting on his Aeroad and joining Pogačar for an “easy coffee ride”.
11-year-old boy died cycling home after bus driver "beeped and startled him" before collision — but coroner concludes driving in line with Highway Code
Winning classics and monuments? Nah... it’s just some KOM hunting
British Cycling investigating death of rider at London circuit race
> British Cycling investigating death of rider at London circuit race
“Make me an honorary member”: Former professional basketball player proposes quid pro quo to UAE Team Emirates — says he’ll give riders shooting lessons in exchange for lessons on how to ride in the peloton
If you thought watching UAE Team Emirates butcher a series of three-pointer shots was tough, just imagine what it was like for a basketball pro…
Well, Reggie Miller, former NBA star and Olympic gold medal winner, did see the excruciating clip — and has come up with a genius plan that could serve both parties.
After hanging up his basketball shoes, the NBA Hall of Fame player has spent quite a bit of time on two wheels, testing his riding skills in gravel and mountain biking. In fact, the 59-year-old has even taken part in XC, enduro, and gravel races, and is currently working hard on his road bike, even linking up with Tom Pidcock last year.
Miller shared the video in another Instagram post with the caption: “Hey Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates, I see a win-win scenario here. I become an honorary team member, and y’all teach me how to ride in the peloton, in exchange, I will give basketball shooting lessons. Because clearly we BOTH need each others help in the others’ field.”
No chicane for entry to Trouée d’Arenberg for Paris-Roubaix this time
After the controversial decision to install a chicane before the entry into the cobbled sections in the Forest of Arenberg in a bid to decrease the riders’ speeds and reduce chances of any potential crashes, the organisers have decided to get rid of it this year.
This is how the peloton will take the most feared part of the Hell of the North on Sunday.
Take a look at the new approach to the Trouée d’Arenberg 👀
Découvrez la nouvelle approche de la Trouée d’Arenberg 🔍#ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/dza8anM4te
— Paris-Roubaix (@parisroubaix) April 8, 2025
Cyclist raises over £4,000 after 18,000-mile charity ride, spending a year on the road
A Kent cyclist has just ticked over the one-year mark on an 18,000-mile round-the-world bike ride – raising more than £4,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital along the way.
Jacob Zintel-Warner, from Folkestone, set off from the hospital gates in London on 8 April 2024 and has so far pedalled over 12,000 miles (19,312 km) through 24 countries – with the finish line in sight for later this summer.
Currently en route to Sydney, Australia, Zintel-Warner is riding solo while on sabbatical from his job as a history teacher at Brockhill Park Performing Arts College near Hythe. He’s hoping to complete the journey by August and raise £10,000 in total.
Describing the challenge as “challenging” (fair enough), he says the toughest parts haven’t been what you’d expect.
“Some of the things I thought would be difficult weren’t necessarily as bad as I thought they would be – spending long days on the bike,” he told the BBC. “Things that I wasn’t prepared for I found a lot harder – the solitude at points and dealing with logistics when things go wrong with your bike.”
While he’s taken a few unavoidable flights to skip oceans and impassable borders, Zintel-Warner has otherwise kept the pedals turning.
The idea to raise money for Great Ormond Street came from personal experience in the classroom: “I chose to raise money for Great Ormond Street partly because back home I taught one student who often frequented the hospital for treatment,” he explained.
“It’s an amazing cause that really helps children live more of a comfortable life and gives them some really promising prospects in the future.”
He’s now pedalling across Australia with Sydney as his next milestone – and still has thousands more kilometres and several continents to cover before returning to where it all started in London.
You can donate to his charity ride here.
Caleb Ewan does it again! Ineos rider comes out on on top at Itzulia Basque stage two bunch sprint
Two bunch sprints, two convincing, powerful victories. It’s safe to say Caleb Ewan is enjoying life at Ineos Grenadiers, having won the first stage of Coppi e Bartali in a similar fashion last month as well.
📺 Itzulia Basque Country, Stage 2. Caleb Ewan’s first WT level 🏆 in more than 3 years. Last was on Stage 3 of 2022 Tirreno-Adriatico. #Itzuliapic.twitter.com/wRB72spvNI
— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) April 8, 2025
With this win, the 30-year-old Australian has won his first WorldTour in over three years — his last victory at the highest level coming at the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2022.
“He can’t always be the fastest”: Tadej Pogačar and Urška Žigart go to Monte Carlo Masters… only to get a scolding from the umpire and boos from tennis fans for being late to take their seats
The fastest cyclist on earth, the GOAT of the modern era of sport, accompanied by the Slovenian road and time trial champion — but a reminder that you’ve got to respect the clock if you’re at a tennis court.
Tadej Pogačar after winning his second Tour of Flanders on Sunday and smoking the likes of Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen on the Kwaremont cobbles, was back at his home in Monaco yesterday. He decided to unwind and relax after the riding the fastest-ever De Ronde by going to watch 23-year-old Chinese tennis player Yunchaokete Bu take on Italy’s world number 16 Lorenzo Musetti (sporting trimmed hair, if anyone’s confused) at the ATP Monte Carlo Masters.
> Tadej Pogačar shares Tour of Flanders destruction on Strava… and doesn’t get flagged this year
The world champion was accompanied by pro cyclist and his partner Urška Žigart. However, as the play was about to be resumed after a short stop, the duo were late in getting to their seats.
And if you ask any tennis (or snooker) fan, they’d tell you that’s where they screwed up… Disturbance in the crowd while play is going on is a strict no-no, as Pogačar and Žigart found out the hard way when the umpire was quick to fire away a stern telling off.
POGACAR tomou pito da arbitra do Master 1000 de Monte Carlo por chegar atrasado para ocupar seu assento. 😂 pic.twitter.com/gl0lOWQyrS
— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) April 8, 2025
“Please take your seats. We are waiting for you,” the umpire said through the microphone, followed by unceremonious boos and whistles from the rest of the audience before the pair eventually sat down, smiling awkwardly.
Some cheeky comments over from Instagram:
“Takes me ages to get down some steps the day after a big ride too. Tadej might be human after all!”
“Clearly, he needs to work on his descending skills.”
“Sorry but he couldn’t find a free place to lock his bike safely, we all know the bad guys that roam all around town.”
“He can’t always be the fastest!”
Monte-Carlo open tennis and two spectators show up mid-game. The umpire calls on the man to quickly take a seat so the player can serve while the crowd start whistling and booing at the interruption… he looks familiar
— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 7 April 2025 at 20:49
We hope he doesn’t bring this attitude to Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. With reports of rain about to make things trickier for the riders as they take on the terrifying pavé, he’d need to be at his best once again to win his first title at the Hell of the North.
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Latest Comments
@Dodonline Look up "Induced Demand" adding capacity does not work.
@chrisonabike ...have impersonated Dutch bike shop owners, people with disabilities, and possibly different genders / sexualities. And have gone from broken English to perfect fluency in a week or so Only a few of us remember those hilariously inept impersonations!
@belugabob Unfortunately going down this route is likely to be a missed opportunity. "Safer streets" can be done in a way that allows access to a virtuous circle with whole suite of benefits. But ... that would mean following something like in NL. So "sustainable safety" - a different philosophy of transport, plus gradual infra and organisational changes over decades. Generally opportunities for concentrations of money beat that. So it looks like we'll get "probably safer on average" but with who knows what side effects, while concentrating insane amounts of power (money) in the hands of a very few. And those will be effectively unaccountable, being almost all overseas, and not having to live in the same streets as their products (they may be flying)...
@Fursty Ferret "...regulator" That should be little comfort, because during previous scandals it became clear that in many cases the regulators were easily hoodwinked, or (especially US) they rely on the companies themselves to mark their own homework. (And in the case of SUVs/light trucks, I heard the US government has been hard a-lobbying the likes of Europe and the UK for "reciprocal recognition" e.g. to accept their product as is without further checks). Needing the makers to help / do the checks is even more likely given the complexity of self-driving vehicles. I suspect self-driving vehicles will likely soon be safer on average than human drivers (a low bar). Of course I think other potential consequences are also a matter of concern (not least - in *theory* humans can be held accountable, but holding humans in large companies accountable for their tech is a *lot* harder)...
@mdavidford Celebrity traitors with Lance? Worse - some of these slippery lycrist quislings deceive people that they're a) pedestrians - by getting off their bike and b) drivers - by getting into their cars! It's all on display in this forum, where IIRC such cyclists have appeared under multiple names, have impersonated Dutch bike shop owners, people with disabilities, and possibly different genders / sexualities. And have gone from broken English to perfect fluency in a week or so...
Politician in "fixing things for my mates / companies I have an interest in" shocker!
@mdavidford Could make that shorter - "we’re letting too many people drive" * I would bet to a first approximation the "damage" could be predicted by number of humans times time driven. Most effective way to fix that - without the UK's "just get rid of the vulnerable road users" - is to remove the motorists, to padded individual lanes, far away from vulnerable road users. Though they'll still crash (and into each other). * Should be "we have incentivised people so that most of them see 'driving' as the solution to most of their transport needs, as well as being part of their status as adults, and we could usefully change that *and* it would also improve health, the economy, the environment..."
@This Wreckage The other point is the observation that efforts to fix the transport systems which reduce motoring convenience almost always meet with very noisy opposition. But when a lot of motor (through) traffic has been removed it turns out that people don't want to go back. They don't all necessarily say how much nicer it is or connect that to the lack of motor traffic. But this experiment has been run in many different localities in different countries and the results seem to hold. Caveats as usual - it's always possible for authorities to bungle things terribly - or even deliberately mess things up with ulterior motives. And people have to have enough time to adapt to the new situation, which is probably nearer a year or two.
@This Wreckage And yet - in the poorest parts of where I stay (Edinburgh) it's not uncommon to see bikes with flat tyres rusting in the closes of flats, or on balconies, and they aren't all kids' bikes... I do agree that storage is an issue. IIRC some places (Edinburgh now) are starting to bring in guidance on having some cycle storage for new flats. Nothing like NL though where for decades it's been a part of the building regulations. I think most people who don't own a bike have simply never considered owning a bike as adults, because they're not "cyclists" (e.g. not practicing a sport) and transport cycling isn't "a thing" for most people in the UK currently.
It's really not smart to alienate so many potential buyers by putting hookless rims on a road bike. I personally don't think it's safe, but everyone can agree it greatly limits tire choices and inflation pressures. Both very important things on a road bike.
8 thoughts on “Made in Chelsea, stolen in Clapham: Reality star related to King Charles has bike pinched despite using three locks worth £200; Pogačar and Žigart booed by tennis fans… for being late; No Paris-Roubaix chicane at Arenberg Forest + more on the live blog”
Ah, terrible luck, again, for
Ah, terrible luck, again, for Degenkolb. 🙁
It’s just shambolic train
It’s just shambolic train organisation from UAE there – any other team would have lined their riders out from the three point line, dropping their leader off to shoot from two feet away.
Olympic gold medallist would
Olympic gold medallist would remove name from cycle path if quarry plans go ahead
I’ve used that path a few times, it’s not great – slap some blue circle signs on a pavement type of thing.
“I put three locks on my
“I put three locks on my bike and I took the key out, and it’s been nicked…”
Why the need to mention taking the key out?
Does he not do so everytime or does he not expect everyone else knows to do that?
It would have been better to
It would have been better to buy 1 lock for £200 or rather 250 for a hiplock or litelok.
Maybe it is the latest ruse
Maybe it is the latest ruse for insurers to avoid payouts saying “You didn’t tell us that you took the key out of the lock so we’re refusing your claim etc.”
Pub bike wrote:
That wouldn’t be new, more than twenty years ago my insurers tried to avoid paying out on the theft of my motorcycle on the grounds that I couldn’t provide them with both keys to the lock (having lost the spare long before) and therefore the missing key must have been left in the lock and used by the thieves. Fortunately on the instructions of the police I had kept the pieces of the broken lock (which had been cut with an angle grinder) for fingerprinting (which they never actually did but there you go) so I was able to prove the theft had nothing to do with the missing key. They were so serious about trying to get out of it that they sent an assessor round to examine the broken lock!
Quote:
Such wise words from a head on such young shoulders.